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A dream
given by God which is at the roots of the Pentecostal Movement in |
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The origin
of the Assembléias de Deus in |
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Berg was
born in |
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They came
to Bélem in 1910. Berg earned his living as a foundry man in a steel works
and while doing so learned Portuguese. Originally they had little success
with their missionary work within the Baptist congregation of Belém. They
held prayer meetings in the cellar of the Baptist chapel and waited for a
revival in |
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In what
follows I shall compare Berg’s account with that of the Baptist preacher of
Belém: |
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‘One
evening the local preacher appeared in our simple premises. When he opened
the door, a wave of song and prayers struck him. We got up and invited him to
take part in our improvised service. He refused and declared that it was now
time to make a decision. He said that a short time before he had discovered
that people had dared to engage in a discussion of doctrine [1], something
that had never happened before. He accused us of sowing doubt and unrest and
of being separatists. Gunnar Vingren got up and declared that we did not
desire any division. On the contrary, we wanted unity among everyone. If only
everyone had the experience of the baptism of the Spirit, we would never be
divided. On the contrary, we would then be more than brothers, like a family. |
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The local
preacher spoke again. The discussion was open. He said that the Bible did
indeed speak about the baptism of the Spirit and also said that Jesus healed
the sick. But that was in those
days. He said that it would be absurd if educated people of our time believed
that such things could happen today. We had to be realistic – he continued –
and not waste time with dreams and false prophecies. Nowadays we had
knowledge to know what to do with it. ‘If you do not mend your ways and
recognize your error, it is my duty to inform all the Baptist congregations
and to warn them about your false doctrine’. |
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Vingren
listened to these words very quietly and then replied: ‘Brothers, we should
not allow themes as important as those we have discussed to be lost in a
personal dispute. We are both servants of God and so we both want to stand in
the truth, for he to whom we pray is the truth. In my view we are colleagues
and not competitors. Who brings
souls to God is a matter of secondary importance. What is important is the
fact that more and more souls are saved. I would not want to say that the
brother does not stand in the truth but that he has not found the whole
truth. [He does not have] the truth of the baptism of the Spirit and the
healing of the sick by Jesus, as we can experience them today’. |
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When
Vingren had finished, the preacher looked round at all those present in the
hope that someone would support him. But no one did so. Then he looked
pointedly at a deacon and waited for his judgment on the question. This
deacon, one of the oldest pillars in the church, stood up after he had been
looked at in this way and remarked in the name of all those present: ‘I can
understand your feelings very well, pastor. You say that you have come into a
group of traitors who have departed from your teaching. You think that we are
not following the way you have shown us. But that is not true. We have never
been so certain our of cause as we are now. We have never had as much faith
as we have now. We have found even more: faith and power of the Holy Spirit’. |
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‘We do not
hold it against you that you did not say these things to us, for you did not
know them yourself and so you could not teach them. But we very much want you
also to receive these blessings from God. Then we shall understand each other
better and feel the same unity with the brothers who have come to us from
abroad. |
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‘All the
members of this church, pastor, are now on ‘higher ground’ and nearer to
heaven. You yourself said that you wanted to be a realist. Very good, I will
give you some instances of realities of the healing power of Jesus in our
days: these sisters, who have belonged to our congregation for years, used to
have to walk on crutches (perhaps you never even noticed). Now they no longer
need them. The crutches hang on the wall of their house, visible to everyone,
so that all can see the wonderful way in which Jesus has healed them. And
Jesus has healed not only them, but also a tumour on the throat. ‘Dear
preacher’, the deacon continued, ‘we cannot and will not accuse you. You have
worked to win souls for Jesus. You have asked Jesus for strength to stand
fast in sickness. But you have not prayed for healing from sickness, because
you did not believe in that. Now you have seen with your own eyes the
instances which I have mentioned.’ |
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Hoping for
an expression in his support, the preacher let his eyes sweep round the room.
In vain. He turned to me and brother Vingren and said, ‘I have come to a
decision. From now on you may not meet here any longer. Look for another
place. After what has happened here we no longer want you’. Then he turned to
the small group of people and asked: ‘How many of you are in agreement with
the false teaching?’ Eighteen people resolutely raised their hands. They knew
that that meant their expulsion from the church. |
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We thanked
the preacher for the common life (that lay behind us) and hoped that he would
soon receive the blessing of the baptism of the Spirit. He did not reply, but
turned his back on us and walked out …. |
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(The
account then goes on to tell the move into the house of one of the group,
where ‘the first Pentecostal service in |
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The Baptist
author de Mesquita reports the matter as follows: ‘In April 1911, two Swedish
missionaries, Gunnar Vingren and Daniel Berg, landed in Bélem. They called
themselves Baptists … They immediately went to Nelson, their
fellow-countryman, to find shelter with him. They were offered the cellar of
the church; they put up there and learnt the language in order to be able to help Nelson in the work of
evangelization. The good missionary [Nelson] then made one of his numerous
journeys into the state of Piaui and left these two behind in the church, in
the sweet hope that even though they could not speak [Portuguese], they would
be able to continue the work. After a short while, however, these (so-called)
Baptists began to quiver and shriek in a meeting. Soon Brazilians imitated
them. What had happened? What kind of a new religion was this, people asked.
They replied that it was the baptism of the Spirit. The speaking with tongues
and the cackling made the services frightful. Nelson was away, and the work
of the congregation was under the supervision of a young man without any
experience …. The whole church was infected, because so many people were
already talking in this so-called speaking with tongues, with the exception
of the deacons, whom this development did not escape. The evangelist called a
meeting of the congregation with the help of the organist, declared the
Pentecostals, who were already in the majority, to be outside the order and
with the help (of the minority who had remained Baptists) excommunicated
those who had falsified sound doctrine. The latter attempted to assert their
rights as the majority, but they were excluded. In this way the congregation
was decimated …. That was the beginning of the Pentecostal movement in |
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Notes |
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[1] D.
Berg, Enviado, p. 37 |
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[2] D.
Berg, Enviado, pp. 37-41. Cf. too
I. Vingren, Pionjarens dagbok. |
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[3] A. N. de Mesquita, Historia II, pp. 136f. |
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From:
Walter J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals,
SCM Press Ltd, Printed in Great Britain, 1972, pages. 75-77 |